Protective Effect of The Aqueous Extract of Wild Cel-ery Against The Detrimental Effects of Incubation on The Motility of Ovine Epididymal Spermatozoa

Background: It has been shown that in vitro spermatozoa pro-cessing and incubation may lead to a progressive reduction in the motility and DNA integrity of them. A reason that has been proposed for this phenomenon is the deleterious effects of excessive ROS production during the incubation period. Sper-matozoa are susceptible to the oxidative stress due to the high content of polyunsaturated fatty acids and the deficiency of in-tracellular antioxidant system. Iranian indigenous wild celery (Kelussia odoratissima Mozzaf) is a medicinal herb that be-longs to the family of Umbelliferae and grows at high altitudes (more than 2000 m). Antioxidant potential of Kelussia odor-atissima Mozzaf is comparable to α-tocopherol and butylated hydroxytoluene when assayed by various methods. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of aqueous extract of Ke-lussia odoratissima Mozzaf on ovine epididymal spermatozoa incubated at 37˚C for 4 hours.Materials and Methods: Testes of sexually mature rams were collected in a local abattoir and transported to the laboratory. In the laboratory, epididymal spermatozoa were recovered from the cauda epididymis and re-suspended in TCFE extender (Tris, citric acid, fructose, egg yolk). Spermatozoa at the concentra-tion of 10×106 sperm/ml were incubated at 37˚C in the pres-ence or absence of 0.01% (w/v) wild celery aqueous extract. Motility of fresh and incubated spermatozoa was analyzed by a computer-assisted sperm analysis system (CASA). Each treat-ment was replicated 5 times and the data of motility parameters were analyzed by One-way ANOVA followed by the Tukey’s post-hoc test using IBM SPSS 20. Differences at the level of P<0.05 were considered significant.Results: Incubation of spermatozoa at 37˚C caused a significant decrease in the total and progressive motility (56.2±3.26 and 47.4±5.6% respectively) compared with extract (72.3±2.94 and 67.2±3.38%) and fresh groups (78.2±1.77% and 73.7±1.78%). Conclusion: This study showed that aqueous extract of Kelus-sia odoratissima Mozzaf could prevent detrimental effects of in vitro incubation of ovine epididymal spermatozoa.

Keywords:

Wild Celery , Sperm Motility , In Vitro Aging , Oxida-tive Stress , Antioxidant